Case Studies: Qualitative Analysis

Base your responses on at least four current scholarly sources, of which two are articles from peer-reviewed journals. Cite references used according to APA 6th edition. Include an APA-formatted reference list. Insert your reference list at the end of each document. Select three published qualitative research studies in your field. One must be a case study, one must be a phenomenological study, and one must be either a grounded theory or ethnographic study. Each of the three studies must be current in the field and published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Note. Do not use dissertations or articles used in previous assignments in this class.

Respond to the prompts about the following concepts as they apply to these studies.

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Case Study:

How the Applications of the Designs Differ
Baxter and Jack (2008) provide an excellent account of the role case studies and the implementation of such case studies in research. Within their research, the various principles of case studies are overviewed. According to Baxter and Jack (2008), "This qualitative case study is an approach to research that facilitates exploration of a phenomenon within its context using a variety of data sources" (p. 545). The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the asynchronous communication perspectives and experiences of undergraduate students in an online course.

Sampling Approach and Data Saturation
The sample for this study was a collection of students who were enrolled at a large Midwestern University. "Twenty-two students, 17 females and 5 males, completed the course. Only two of the students had taken an online course prior to the course. The instructor of the online course is the researcher in this study" (Vonderwell, 2002, p. 79). According to Vonderwell (2002), "Interviews with 22 pre-service teachers, student-to-instructor email transcripts, asynchronous discussion transcripts, and two independent reviewers' reviews of the asynchronous discussions were used to collect and analyze the data" (p. 77).

Data Collection Techniqes
To gather information, the researcher examined online communication through the perspective of both the students and faculty. The research, which used discussion transcriptions, email transcripts, etc. was guided using these questions:
1. What are the implications of asynchronous communication on student learning?
2. To what extent does ...